


sky, god, girl

by spiraetspera



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, general rewrite of the fourth shinobi war, just a mess of a fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 11:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13973820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiraetspera/pseuds/spiraetspera
Summary: Or, three kunoichi in the war. [tsunade; hinata; tenten]





	sky, god, girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ioncehadabrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ioncehadabrain/gifts).



> Just... do you ever wish you could rewrite the fourth-shinobi war arc? cause i do. gift for the talented tagmaster Chau, who inspires, reflects and never stops these things.

  
*

 

Coming back from the nigh-dead is nothing short of excruciating. But Tsunade has died in more ways than one in the past, so when Orochimaru hoists her to stand up, she spits the remnants of her death on the ground. Once for luck, twice for spite - had it not been for him and Sakura, she'd be a goner. There is a girl next to her whose hair is like fire. For an involuntary and fleeting second, Tsuna thinks of Mito.

  
She reels but does not fall.

  
"Careful" says Orochimaru, whose face betrays a soft sort of amusement, though the sharpness of the situation lays in his shrewd, shrewd eyes.

  
It is very strange to see him here, to see him again. Last time they met, the Kusanagi was buried deep in her chest and he had been sorry to have hurt her. But has harmed nevertheless. As Tsunade did hurt him. The memory draws a smile on her face, acidic - the irony of all, the irony of war and just how, for a moment, she wanted to kill Orochimaru on that impossibly sunny and windy day of many sorrows. Thinking of that day inevitably ends up in thinking of Jiraiya too, smiling toothily in the background, because he knew she wouldn't do it, the killing.

  
Like tasting a cup too bitter, that mirage of Jiraiya' s smile makes her own stern one waver. She decides to spit again.

  
When she looks up, Orochimaru has turned his face away, as if being able to read her thoughts. Or maybe, his reasons are more simple: he is but disgusted by her coarseness.  
 _Fucking coward_ , Tsunade thinks, all vehemence, _to think I loved the boy he was once._

  
But that is a sadder story. An old and finished one. What had been her favourite avocation in peacetime has now become a burden - nostalgia and reminiscing are expensive luxuries on the battlefield. Jiraiya nagged her about it all the time. _You don't have to think, Princess. Just act. Just do it_. _Dirty your hands._ But in the end, even those wise sermons could not sustain and uphold his grand, vast body. Dirty hands had drawn dirty ends.

  
"We should go" says the red girl, adjusting her glasses. "The rest of the forces are preparing their next move."

  
It is very possible the other kages have died and she has failed. But there is a small chance of the exact opposite and she dares herself to look at Maru's head, half-visible, sharp and closed.

  
"The rest?" she echoes. Forces herself to hope.

 

His movements are slow like sin. Orochimaru blinks once and then exhales;

  
"Already on the battlefield."

  
A hearbeat's time. And another. Somehow, the pride Tsunade feels outweighs the dust and the stench of death on the battlefield and this is why she is damned in more ways than one.

  
_Sakura, Sakura._

  
Orochimaru's eyes are wells: infinite, guarded. Even so, Tsunade sees right through him. The vile shadows along his heart are hers to see. He is calculating, Orochimaru. She still adores him for it.

  
Forgive me, Tsunade prays to who knows what. She suspects Jiraiya would be proud of her.

  
"Let's go" Tsunade says.

 

  
*

 

It had been a taut kind of promise, but when the moment the war was declared, Tsunade steeled herself, straightened her spine and vowed to not, to never cry during the war.   
Confidence is safety, and safety was what Konoha needed. It was said that her grand-uncle, Tobirama Senju, had not shed a single tear upon seeing Hashirama's body ( _though her sobo, Mito, has wept waterfalls. When Tsunade was small and first behold the Valley where everything had ended, and beheld that space full of water, full of strange stones and stranger sorrows, she would think of her grandmother and how she must have wept that lake_ ).

  
Some nights, well after Shizune's eyes drifted off onto her tender dreams, Tsunade would rush out to the balcony to breathe in her families' kingdom - gold and quiet and abundant - a village not unlike her first home, and would gulp the fresh air in and exhale the fresher question out:

  
"Is that what you would have wanted?"

  
But her ancestors' stubborn gaze refuse to graze her. Their sight is for the homes and the house and the woods only.

 

  
*

  
  
_Is that what you would have wanted_ , repeats now Tsunade, ankle-deep in blood and guts and wailing. _Was it worth it?_

  
"This one kicked the bucket" sighs the girl named Karin. Her healing abilities are invert, but her chakra reserves are crazy. And the hair... Tsunade cannot help but wonder. The body she is inspecting belonged to a Suna nin - in fact, most of the bodies around here are from Suna.

  
It is a cycle, it seems. There is a cicatrise in the horizon, a giant chasm in the land where dead things lie. Neji Hyuuga informs her about Shikaku's and Iniochi's death - though she should have expected this. The silence has been unbearable.

  
At the Hyuuga's feet, there are scraped-covered bodies, litter-mummies. Half of a qipao's collar catches her eyes - light material blindingly shiny on the dark matter of the ground - but it cannot be Tenten's, for the boy's face is too serene. And Neji is not afraid to look into her eyes. He is not afraid to catalogue and inform her of every and all happenings, as long as his will and sight allows him.

  
As Neji speaks and Orochimaru cuts in with his questions, Tsunade performs open aortic surgery on Darui. Shikaku, says Neji. Inoichi, he continues. Inuzuka Hana, Hyuuga Hiashi. Sweat peppers her temples and her arms ache and her hands shake and her head a vertigo - still, she cannot give up now. Maruten and Makato Akimichi. Snails are running around them, whispering their secrets and sharing their chakra. And still, many have nothing left to lose. Anko too. _Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead._

  
"So?" Karin cuts in. She does not seem to grasp the point of this. Helping the living.

  
"Leave it already, Tsunade" Orochimaru is impatient to go to the battlelines. His voice does not let this show. "That Haruno student of yours is waiting for you."

  
She does not budge. Darui mimics her.

  
"Tsunade - "

  
Now comes the lashing out. Her voice is thunder;

  
"I am a medic - first and foremost. These are dying people so it my duty - "

  
"These are dead people." Karin frowns.

  
Tsunade wonders whether she can continue Darui's healing process, the squeezing of his heart methodically with one hand while squeezing the woman's throat with the other.

  
"This one is not dead." Her tone is biting, but lets the rest go. Tasting and repeating the names in tandem with squeezing the heart is a well-practiced dance by now, so she does that instead. But Darui is getting colder and she is running out of names...

  
"Neji. Who else?"

  
Neji's expression wavers, ever so slightly. It is but a flash, but something very dark passes his eyes.

  
And Tsunade has lived long enough to know the guilt of surviving when she sees it. It's like slapped into a mirror, shards cutting you, but the picture so clear.

  
Under her hands, Darui's heart begins beating again.

  
They lock eyes then, Neji and the Hokage. Neji's eyes, like milk and like fate stare at her. Into her. Tsunade's mouth splits into something feral.

  
"Boy" she says. She means Neji and she means Orochimari and she means Darui. The latter's skin is in the process of refolding itself at the ribcages, as if it'd be a cloak to wear on rainy days. His breathing evens out. The trauma lulls him out of consciousness though. "Where are your teammates?"

  
Neji's face turns to a softer kind of stone. He doesn't exactly look at Tsunade as much as he is looking through her, far beyond her and the horizon. Could it be those heavenly eyes see the end of this crater? Could it be that Neji's eyes see even as far as the end of the war?

  
"They are where I should be." he says.

  
"So why are you here?"

  
His forehead protector is long gone, the mark on his brows wink at her when Neji's head drops. Tsunade's heart flies into her throat, a steady drum, maddening.

  
"I promised Hinata I wouldn't let anything happen to her sister."

  
Tsunade's eyes fall to the body at Neji's feet. The smallest of bodies. They lock eyes again.

 

"But _alas_ " he breathes, laughs a little, then shuts his mouth, clicks his jaw and looks through them again. Tsunade knows what Neji is thinking now. Hyuuga do not break.

  
At least, never before others.

 

  
*

 

The mishmash camp the remnant crumbs of the alliance forces had decided to huddle into would have been easily hedged by sound, but Karin's sensory skills are still handy when it comes to timing the whole process.

  
They arrive just before sunrise. Wordlessly, Neji runs to search for his team.

  
"Godaime-sama!" a loud, but rusty voice welcomes them from the opposite direction Neji has run. She turns her head, seeing Yamato with Kakashi. Yamato's right arm is in a cast. Slouching, but holding up his teammate, Kakashi's seems startled, as if he was seeing a ghost.

  
Next to Orochimaru, Karin starts fidgeting.

 

"Hatake" Tsunade flashes a grim smile while the man's eyes widen. "That name rhymes well with Hokage, but you'll have to wait."

  
His eyes flash, amused. He steps closer, and the proximity lets Tsunade see how pale he is; how much older he looks. His back has a strange curve. By gods - what had happened here within a day?

  
Yamato eyes Orochimaru, all suspense.

  
"What's _he_ doing here?" he cares not to hide the disgust and distrust from his voice.

  
"We thought you were dead." Kakashi's voice is even. Must be practice.

 

"And that answers both your questions" she shrugs. "Now, would someone inform me where Shizune is?"

 

Yamato looks guilty.

  
"She used up all her chakra on my neck and my arm. She's been out in the cold since. I apologize."

  
"Sakura?" she starts to walk, with purpose but no aim. The quickly set tents teeter in the dawning wind, they look like they could be crushed by some small force alone. When Madara decides to return, this parade will be blown in a second.

 

"Healing Gaara's sister." this is Kakashi, following her. Yamato points at the largest tent on the right, just at the crown of the hills. "The chakra rods are a real pain in the ass."

  
Gaara's sister... surely Gaara is there then.

  
"I thought there was no way to dislodge those needles." she comments as they head uphill.

  
Orochimaru and Karin stay behind, no doubt to search for the Uchiha boy.

  
"Sakura came up with a method," explains Yamato. "These... things drain chakra and they work as a sort of wiretap, so it was our number one priority to get it out of everyone's body." He scratches the day-old stubble on his chin, deep in thought. "I don't really get the theory, but the removals have been successful so far."

  
In her heart of hearts, Tsunade believes she shouldn't be biased. And yet pride catches her again, and judging the way Kakashi's eyes crinkle, she is not alone with the sentiment.

  
When they finally reach the top of the hill, Tsunade is pleased to see that the crater is essentially shielded by walls of trees and timber and wood of the toughest kind. Polished, the resin glinting in the dark. Surely, this Yamato's mokuton.

  
"Oh" she cannot quite believe her eyes.

  
"Glorious, isn't it?" the man in question echoes. Tsunade nods, more confused than not. Opens her mouth to ask, but then there is screaming and swearing coming from the tent in which Temari lies.

 

  
*

 

Since there are no more anesthetics and Temari has downright refused to be knocked out for a simple and supposedly fast operation, Sakura Haruno plucks the black chakra rods out of her legs one by one, with the sole help of her hands, her chakra, and three men who restrain the patient.

  
It does not stop Temari's mouth however.

  
She more or less settles to inarticulate howling by the time Tsunade and her company step into the tent. Kankuro seems one step away from crying too, while holding the hand of her sister. Shikamaru Nara - Temari's lover by now, for certain, is grim and seems nonchalant to Temari's legs in his stomach. Gaara is holding her sister's arms, face whiter than snow, face a blank page, eyes dark and illegible. The last rod is settled in her stomach, and Sakura counts back from three.

  
"Come on, Temari" Sakura is as pale as she is furious. She repeats her prayer, voice on the edge. " _Come on_."

  
Yes, she is indeed angry, but this anger only made her fight forward and that has not changed, it'd seem. There isn't a man here who would not trust their lives onto her. " _Three_ " Temari draws her breath in great gulps and rubs her face in Kankuro's shirt. " _Two._ " Gaara says something low. He must be sweating more than Temari. " _One!_ " The kunoichis snarl in tandem, and with one last, shaking scream, the rinnegan-born rod is completely out of Temari's body, all bloody.

  
Immediately, shock-solid solace fills the tent. Shikamaru swears, Kankuro collapses on the ground, still holding his sister's hand, and Gaara looks up, catching Tsunade's eyes. They nod at each other, but before the kazekage could walk over, Sakura's body and voice booms into her.

  
"Shishou!" she does not cry. Her voice doesn't even waver. "We were so worried."

  
Tsunade raises her hand. Places it on the crown of Sakura's head. Her arms shadow her newly formed seal and she wants to say; _my girl, my wonder._

  
Instead, she clears her throat and says;

  
"You did very well, Sakura." And Sakura has the brightest of minds along with the brightest of smiles so she understands, so she smiles. "Now tell me; where is Madara?"

  
_How the hell are we still alive?_ Sakura's smile melts as quickly as it had appeared.

  
"The Hyuuga did something with Hashirama's cell inside his body." says Gaara before Sakura could answer.

  
Tsunade frowns.

  
"Hiashi?"

  
"No" Sakura's voice is grave. "Hinata. Hinata and Team Eight."

  
"She is not dead" adds Kakashi, seeing her stutter. "Neither is Kiba or Shino."

  
"More or less alright" chides in Sakura, soothing the tension. "I did everything I could. They are sleeping now."

  
" _Less_ than more" grunts Shikamaru from the corner. He is already helping Temari up. "We needed to separate Akamaru from Kiba - he wanted to bite everyone's head off."

  
For the second time, Tsunade has difficulty finding her voice. Team Eight on the brink of death for crippling Madara Uchiha... Who would have thought.

  
"How did they do it?" the question seems redundant.

  
Gaara folds his arms. It is clear from the lack of his answer that he wasn't there, so she turns to Kakashi instead.

  
"We were fighting... the masked man" a sort of pain travels across his brows. "Obito. And while we were busy with the Ten-tails, Team Eight went solo and somehow managed to get close to Madara."

  
"Impossible" says Tsunade, thinking of the dark-azure wrath susannoo brought. Gaara nods with her, remembering as well. "How.."

  
"Forgive me" This is the Nara boy. "But that's a question for later. We need a plan for when they return."

  
_He is right._ In that moment, Shikamaru reminds her of Shikaku, all rationality and no nonsense. She smiles and sits on the ground, cross-legged, attentive.

  
"Are they comatose now, then?" that is her last question for Sakura.

  
She nods and sits as well. The others follow her movement.

 

"I put them into that state myself. Aids and speeds regeneration." Temari groans. She is grinning now, much to everyone's relief.

  
"Good. I will look at them after consulting the other kages. Now, Nara boy - " She hesitates, for there is a buzz in the air, in her ears. Someone with an exceeding chakra, someone whom she had known a lifetime ago, is very close. "Can we sense the Uchihas?"

  
Sittings across her, Shikamaru follows Kankuro aiding Temari out of the tent. Gaara's gaze lingers on them too. Only when their silhouettes have left the space, does Shikamaru begin.

  
"No chakra signatures in the area."

  
Kakashi waves his hand, tired.

 

"He could have easily muted it."

  
Shikamaru clicks his tongue before continuing.

  
"And do what? If we suppose that Hinata has used 'Gentle Fist' on Madara's body thus successfully neutralizing the Senju cells in his body, then he is looking for another alternative to use the mokuton or some other healing abilities."

  
Eager and ready, Sakura joins in.

  
"We also thought he could be searching for a proper healer... You all heard how he shouted, right?"

  
Tsunade shivers. This does not bode well for them. At all.

  
"Gaara. Where are Mei and Onoki and the Raikage?"

  
The very young Kazekage blinks.

  
"Mei is with her dying swordsman. The Tsuchikage is forming a defense barrier around this crater with the help of the Raikage and Sasuke Uchiha. They have been working for hours."

  
Gaara says 'Sasuke Uchiha' as if he was an object meant to be handled very carefully. Sakura's hand flies into her hair, something Tsunade recognizes as a nervous habit of hers. Shikamaru doesn't seem particularly impressed, and neither does Yamato. Kakashi is mesmerized by the tent's architecture. Well. Tsunade does not blame them.

  
"Right. What about the Ten-tails."

  
"Oh, that was taken care of." sighs Kakashi. "Wish I could have drawn a barrier between the zetsus and us a month ago."

  
"Barrier?" she echoes. Yamato's eyebrows disappear under his faceplate.

  
Then Sakura's hands leave her hair to fly before her mouth.

  
"You don't know." and though the sentence is muffled, its meaning is clear.

  
Kakashi's spine straightens. He looks amused. Tsunade wants to slap him, but her mouth has gone so dry she isn't sure she would even be able to shout.

  
"Know what?" her nostrils flare. That chakra, that oh-so familiar, powerful, cold-water, clear-conscience of a chakra reaches the tent's entrance. Shikamaru stands to greet the newcomers.

  
And Tsunade doesn't have to turn her head to recognize the voice of her grand-uncle.

  
"Tsuna." the voice doesn't sound shocked. A bit impatient, if anything.

  
As she stands and turns, she notes just how Kakashi's eyes betray his stupid, invisible grin. She wants to swear, but her arms and legs have turned to jelly and she has to concentrate on properly moving.

  
The sudden urge to _cry_ catches her as Tobirama Senju steps nearer onto the center of the tent. He is every inch like he used be; tall ( _but not as tall as her grandfather_ ), zealously-serious, emanating a quiet sort of authority and a whiff of well-deserved pride. Even in his death, his narrow mouth is a set line, but something soft and tender washes over his face as Tsunade touches the edges of his armour, just where the softest of fur starts. He even smells the same under the graveyard dust: clean linen and of ink too oily. Amazing how death is unable to override instinct.

  
"Good." he says with his deep, ever-grim voice. "You are here. The _numachi_ takes three Senjus."

  
And of course he would say that. Of course he had counted on her. She laughs. It comes out shaken. She feels eternally indebted to Orochimaru. _That snake,_  she wonders viciously, _he really knows me._

  
And if it takes three Senjus... the third one is -

  
"Please, don't cry." Tobirama warns her. "And I hope you remember your first lessons, because we need to make that swamp as extensive as possible."

  
Tsunade grimaces, despite her best efforts.

  
"Must we really scare away Madara by smelling as disgusting as possible?"

  
"We will do whatever we need to if we want to win. Besides, it is not that bad. Stop complaining."

  
Tsunade deadpans.

  
"It's awful, Uncle."

  
Tobirama pouts. A muscle jumps in his face, near his nose. His way of laughing, she knows.

  
She turns back to Kakashi and Yamato.

  
"Find Mei Terumi for me. I want to visit that swordsman of hers." They salute her.

  
Then it is Sakura's turn.

  
"Wait for me here. When I return, we are going to visit Shizune. The three of us could heal the rest of this crowd." Sakura beams.

  
Then she steps towards Shikamaru Nara.

  
"I need you to find Ino Yamanaka for me. Bring Choji, if you want too. We need to relay a message once we have a plan." Shikamaru begins to slide away, but she stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

  
They lock eyes. The boy looks haggard, tired. Older than he has a right to be.

  
"I am so sorry for your loss." she whispers. Shikamaru's eyes widen a bit, but he clenches his jaw immediately. "Now go and make your father even prouder."

  
"Yes, Ma'am" he says, not breaking eye-contact yet. Tsunade can tell they have an agreement, a pact of some sort now. A logical sort of admiration, a vehement respect.

  
When she turns, Tobirama notions her to follow him outside. Before they can take a leap out of the entrance though - they let Kakashi and Yamato exit - her uncle narrows his eyes.

 

"Is Nawaki around?"

  
Tsunade doesn't need to answer. One look at her face, and Tobirama knows.

 

  
*

 

The first, meeker rays of sun caress them as they step outside.

  
It's the feeling that comes first, the wave of chakra that is so alike the patches of light smiling in the forest around Konoha. The warmest, safest web of power of them all.

  
Tsunade looks at her grand-uncle, and she for the third time after her rebirth of today, she finds that cannot speak. The words die in her throat. And he understands, he must, because he is pointing behind her, down, to the foot of the hill. Towards the sun that is climbing so stubbornly from behind the mountains of the East.

  
Searching, she bites down on her tongue. Dares not hope, not now. Looks down at the valley the Madara Uchiha's susanoo carved with fury and motive. And among the warweary, bloody, crestfallen, crying, desperate and yet determined, unbelieveably fatigued, torn and quartered number of shinobi and kunoichi there stands Naruto Uzumaki and Orochimaru, speaking with a man who is explaining something quite passionately. His gestures are wide, wild and so familiar that Tsunade would freeze were she not running already, running, running toward the man named Hashirama Senju.

  
"Sofu!" Tsunade cries. It is more of a bellow. She stumbles on a rock. Does not fall. The man's broad back beckon her still, but he must not have heard her. Is he a mirage? If he is, Tsunade might go mad for sure. "Sofu!" she yells again, voice wavering, wobbly. Tobirama doesn't chide her.

  
At last, Naruto spots her sprinting form and his face breaks into a grin. Jumping up, he barks;

  
"Old hag! Dammit, I knew you still had it in you!"

  
The man turns around as well.

  
Whether that is possible, Hashirama Senju's smile competes, if not surpasses Naruto's.

  
" _Tsuna_!" he yells, full of joy and wonder. His arms open, vast and comforting - and Tsunade is four again, she is a girl once more as she falls into his embrace. She promised herself not to cry, but it is impossible not to, not when Hashirama's arms shield her, shield them - not when the sun is already up. So Tsunade cries into Hashirama's shoulder, onto his dark hair of silk. Lets her grief and relief fall.

  
And, as she spots Orochimaru next to them, she thinks of the gravity of his sins, all that cancerous vanity that led him here. She thinks of Naruto's smile as if the sun, the necklace around his throat a promise. And she thinks of Shizune resting and Sakura blanching as she was healing Temari; the focus and the strength in her eyes and how she must have done at least one thing well, or rather, two.

  
And Tsunade thinks of the taboo that is Sasuke Uchiha, the boy who wandered through his lost world, only to reach his purpose once he returned back to the start. And how underneath all that grime and grief he must be at peace at Naruto's side, for he is building that fence to protect these people. She thinks of Neji's promise, and Hinata's wound, and both of their loyalty to their kin and to each other. How Neji must run towards the tent where he cousin lies. And how Tenten is alive and Lee is alive and Might Guy is alive. She thinks of Darui's heart beating for her own was there with him. Focuses on the organ of wonders, supposedly the greatest, secret strength of the Senjus. The thumpthumpthump waves of life coursing around the valley where, this she knows for certain now, there will be rejoicing yet.

  
Tsunade envelops herself out of her grandfather's arms and smiles _upupup._

  
And thinks; _Just do it, Princess._

 

 

 

_"If there's no one there, then there's no one there, but at least the war is over."_


End file.
